Miami 2016 – Marble, quartz, concrete and lava. International brands and designers blur the lines between urban and domestic, nature process and craftsmanship unveiling new aesthetics for heavy and unbreakable design.

Inspired by the great frozen lakes of ice which can be found in the Arctic, the Genesis collection by Arik Levy for surface company COMPAC enhances the genuine characteristics of quartz and marble. The pieces reveal visual fragments similar to those found in natural stone and invite to delve into the ethereal qualities and surprising transparency of the material.

Ice installation by COMPAC with Genesis collection by Arik Levy – Photo by James Harris, courtesy of DesignMiami/.

“These slabs are as beautiful as a painting on the wall and as powerful as an ancient stone.” Says Arik Levy. The Miami installation featured Genesis in vertical and horizontal formats, as both a surface and product – showing many potential applications.

“The QTZ series represents a new generation of urban elements” says Katalin Ivanka to ArchiPanic. The designs that debuted at Spazio Rossana Orlandi during Milan Design Week, were exhibited in two different venues in Miami Design District mixing private and public bespoke design.

Milan gallery Plusdesign blurred the lines between urban landscape and the domestic realm as well. The Streetscape exhibition featured also marble jugs by Will West. TheBritish designer took inspiration by abandoned objects found by a marble factory in the middle of rural Italy.

Milan-based designer Vincenzo de Cotis presented marble and cast brass tables for the Carpenters Workshop Gallery. “The aesthetic of De Cotiis’ works comes from an imaginary home where unexpected artistic forms meet the functionality of everyday objects.” Say at CWG.

The Asymmetrical Asymmetry exhibition by New York City gallery Friedman Benda featured Chilean design studio gt2P’s new Remolten Lava table lamps made from lava excavated from Chile’s Villarrica Volcano. “In Nature, lava covers every shape. What if we could control this process in order to keep the original design?” Comment at gt2P.